Pumpkin Carving
by Lady Illiya
Summary: Arya wants to carve pumpkins for Halloween, so she drags Gendry along for the ride; whether he wants to or not.


Pumpkin Carving

Summary: Arya wants to carve pumpkins for Halloween, so she drags Gendry along for the ride; whether he wants to or not.

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When Arya slid up next to him and looked at him with that tilted grin he knew he was about to be dragged into something he wouldn't want to do.

"What do you want Arya?"

The second that left his lips her expression turned from sly to affronted, although he could tell she wasn't actually mad based on twinkle in her eye.

"Why would you just assume I wanted something from you?" She gasped out, pressing her hand to her chest. Before he could respond her grin was back, "Ok, you're right, I want something, so why don't you just say yes and be done with it?"

He sighed, "Last time I agreed without knowing I ended up getting chased by a motherfucking Canadian goose, which is not a particular experience I want to repeat, so I think I'll pass on whatever adventure you've thought up this time."

Her grin fell a little, and he saw a bit of insecurity slip through her mask of indifference. He stayed silent, knowing she wouldn't say anything if he pressured her. She sighed, "Fine. The Student Union is doing a pumpkin carving competition and I want to do it but you need to have a team." Her shoulders slumped like she was resigned to him saying no. "Never mind, it's stupid," she turned to go, "I'll see you later."

He reached to grab her shoulder, heart hammering, and he had to tell himself that she wasn't asking him on a date, so he shouldn't get his hopes up. This was just something she wanted to do that she couldn't do by herself so she was forced to ask him. "Yeah," he spoke, clearing his throat, "Yeah, I'll do that, pumpkin carving sounds fun." His hand left her shoulder when she turned around and was now rubbing the back of his neck.

Her grin was worth it, "Yeah? Awesome! We're gonna make the best pumpkin ever!" She started to run off before pausing, turning and saying almost in an afterthought, "It's at 6:30, so we should probably walk at 6 so we can pick out a good pumpkin. Meet you in the lobby then, yeah?"

By the time 6 pm rolled around Gendry found himself in the lobby waiting, sliding his palms on his jeans in an attempt to calm down. He felt a tug at his sleeve and looked down to see Arya standing at his shoulder. He smiled, "Ready to go?"

The walk to the Student Union building was short and only slightly awkward. Gendry kept thinking he didn't know where to put his hands, and moved them from his sides to his sweatshirt to his pockets repeatedly. Arya seemed oblivious to his plight, and was rattling on about how she and her siblings would always carve pumpkins together and line them up on the porch and they'd stay there until they all shriveled up and her mom yelled at them to throw them out.

"Is that why you wanted to do this?"

She looked at him and smiled, "Yeah, it was weird not going home, but I live so far away, plus I wasn't about to miss my first Halloween at college. I thought about just going to get my own pumpkin, but it would've been kinda hard being in the dorms and all."

He nodded, he remembered his first semester last year, once the initial excitement was done he started missing his mom a whole lot, although that might've been due to the quality of the cafeteria food.

When they reached the Union, they found the carving was set up outside, and a long line of pumpkins sat near the registration table. After they signed in and got the carving tools Arya went running down the line until she found one to her liking. She called him over to haul it and then flounced over to a dry patch of grass were she sat waiting for him.

He joined her on the ground and set the pumpkin down in front of them. He turned to her and asked, "What do you want to carve?"

She grinned and reached into her pocket, pulling out a piece of paper with an outline of a wolf howling against a full moon. Handing it to him, she said, "I really like it, it's cool, because we'll get to do a shallow carving that only shows up when there's a candle in, since we won't carve out the moon completely." When he nodded she smiled, and he set the drawing down on the ground.

While they waited for the rest of the students to show up, Arya transferred the drawing the best she could onto the pumpkin. He stifled his laughter because Arya did not have the best artistic skills in the world. Once most of the students participating had arrived the carving commenced, Gendry cut the top off so he and Arya could starting scooping out the inside so they could start carving.

They were both grabbing squishy pumpkin guts when Gendry took the opportunity to look around at the other people carving pumpkins. He was surprised to note several singles in the crowd, and several groups, yet each person had their own pumpkin.

"Arya, you said you needed a team to do this?" He asked, scooping out a spoonful of pumpkin guts.

She nodded, distractingly, reaching in to help clean out the pumpkin, "Yeah, why?"

He looked around again, confirming that there were indeed many single's carving pumpkins, "There are a lot of people by themselves here, it doesn't look like that was a rule."

To his surprise, she blushed rather prettily, looking up briefly before diving down to the pumpkin to retrieve another mixture of guts and seeds. "I don't know what you're talking about; are you going to help me or not, stupid?"

He was outright grinning now, and couldn't resist poking her in the arm, "You wanted to invite me to this," she glared at him, face still red, "Arya, is this a date?" He couldn't resist asking, the teasing tilt still present in his tone.

She jerked up, the intensity of her glare lessened by the level of her blush, "Shut up, shut up!" She grit out through clenched teeth.

He started laughing, which was apparently the wrong thing to do, because she actually looked mad now, and before he could say anything he had a face full of pumpkin guts.

"If you didn't want to come you didn't have to say yes!" she snapped, hands reaching for more ammo.

He lunged forward, grabbing her wrist, "Arya," he said laughing, reaching one hand up to swipe his face, "that's not it, really." He must have sounded sincere because she stopped fighting him, "I'm really glad you asked me, I'd love it if this was a date."

A smile cracked her face, and first the first time he saw her looking sheepish, "Really?" she asked.

"Yeah," meeting her smile, "however, there is something that needs to be done."

Her eyebrow rose, "And what's that?"

"Payback." He stated, and before she could defend herself he dumped the bowl of guts they removed on top of her head.

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